Miriam Lubow, a dynamic woman who barely escaped the Holocaust as a child and went on to become one of Microsoft's first employees, died Tuesday night of liver cancer.

Lubow, 72, was diagnosed a year ago but lived long enough to see her old boss, Bill Gates, retire from Microsoft last month.

She also participated this year in a reunion of employees pictured in the famous "Albuquerque Eleven" photo taken back in Microsoft's shaggy days, even though she missed the original sitting because of a snowstorm.

Lubow found the company through a newspaper ad seeking a "girl Friday" and became the company's first receptionist and office manager.

"Mama" Lubow, as the employees called her, also raised four children, two of whom worked at the company as adults.

Lubow was hired by Steve Wood while Gates was away. She had never heard of the word software, but Wood hired her anyway, according to "Gates," a biography by Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews.

An anecdote about her first encounter with Gates appeared in the book and was repeated at this year's reunion:

"One morning in comes this kid, sneakers and bluejeans and hair disheveled, and I'm thinking this kid doesn't belong here, what is he doing?" Lubow recalled, according to an account provided by Microsoft. "He runs by my office and goes into the computer room that Steve said 'nobody should go in there; it's private. Don't let anybody in there.'"

She quickly found Wood.

"I said, look Steve, this kid runs in there, and he's in that room, and he's working like he owns this place, and Steve says, 'Well, you know what, he does. He's your boss. He's the president.'"

In those early days, Lubow typed letters that Gates had scrawled overnight on legal pads, made his barber appointments, reminded him to eat lunch and straightened his tie, according to the book "Gates."

After the company moved from Albuquerque to Bellevue, Gates offered to relocate everyone, including Lubow's family.

Lubow's husband, Milton, was reluctant, but eventually they accepted the offer and ended up in Kirkland.

"She just loved it - Microsoft was the best time of her life, she just considered that family," said her daughter, Yvonne Weinstein.

Lubow met her husband in New York, where her family arrived in 1940 after fleeing her native Italy. Weinstein said they barely made it out - her grandfather gave a cigar box full of cash to someone at the consulate, and the next day their passports arrived.

All four of Lubow's children worked odd jobs for Microsoft in the early days, doing things like stuffing envelopes. Two of them, Michelle Weinberg and Warren Lubow, went on to work for the company as adults.

Last year, after the cancer was discovered, Lubow went and told Gates and Paul Allen about her condition.
It resonated especially with Allen, who survived Hodgkin's lymphoma that was diagnosed in 1983, prompting his retirement from Microsoft.

"He treated her like quadruple gold," said her friend and neighbor, Steve Silverman.

After going to visit Gates, she told Silverman how amazing it was to have to get past three secretaries and security staff to reach him. She told Silverman she was the company's sixth employee; the family thought she may have been the seventh.

Paul is not such a bad guy, a little reclusive with his handlers and sister sometimes being too over protective at what you can or can not say in his presence.

Both Paul and Bill have commented how being too rich has actually made their lives not as enjoyable as just being rich.

Other Billionaires share the same complaint; quality of life is not as good as just being a millionaire.

Posted by budle dooper

9:00 PM, Jul 31, 2008

This is not news! Please stop brown nosing MS

Posted by Pam Miller

9:46 PM, Jul 31, 2008

I never met Miriam but everyone I knew, especially Steve and Marla Wood, who were at MSFT in the early days had nothing but kind and respectful things to say about her. So no, this may not be "news" but the woman did "manage" one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our age--not an easy feat, especially given how young Bill was at the time.
The piece was about Miriam, and not Paul, so stop being so random and such a grump.

Posted by ksj

11:06 PM, Jul 31, 2008

"This is not news! Please stop brown nosing MS"

I sincerely hope that your life isn't diminished the way you've attempted to diminish Miriam's life when you pass.

IMO you should be ashamed of yourself.

Posted by Dana

11:09 PM, Jul 31, 2008

This is news, and thank you for posting it. It's nice to have diverse and interesting things to read. It's also nice to read about the history of our local businesses. We need to thank our lucky stars for what Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Microsoft have done for our area. If you don't like it here, pick up and move to Detroit. Good luck with that...

Gadgets and games | Fun stuff I've written about lately includes Apple's iPhone, Hewlett-Packard's HDX laptop and Microsoft's Halo3. Also on the radar are new digital video boxes such as the Tivo HD and the Vudu.